Garga Haman Adji: a Municipal Councillor Gunning for Cameroon’s Top Job

Garga Haman Adji, born 27 January 1944, is a Cameroonian politician, and founding President of the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) political party on June 4, 1991.

He served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of the Civil Service from 1990 to 1992 and is currently a municipal councilor in the Maroua I sub division. He is a Muslim, and has several wives and children.

Early Life and Education

A Muslim and a member of the Fula ethnic group, Garga was born in Maroua. He began working in the state administration when he was a teenager, becoming an auxiliary administrative assistant in Yagoua Prefecture on 26 November 1961 and then head of the Secretariat Of the Sub-Prefect Of Kar-Haye in July 1962; the later post enabled him to gain experience in preparing a budget.

He joined the ruling party, CNU, in 1962, and would later study at Cameroon’s National School of Administration and Magistracy, at the International Institute of Administration in Paris, and at the Federal University of Yaounde in the 1960s.

Professional Career

Early in his career, Garga held a succession of high-level administrative posts in Cameroon, working as Sub-Director of National Security, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Finance, Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Civil Service, and Finance Director of the National Electricity Company of Cameroon.

He then served as State Inspector and Deputy Director of Inspection and Administrative Reform. Following the April 1984 attempt coup d’état, in which Northerners were implicated, Garga was summarily arrested and held at the Kondengui Central Prison. He was later released, and on 24 October 1984, he was appointed as Director-General of Boston Bank Cameroon.

President Paul Biya appointed Garga to the government as Minister of the Civil Service and the Supreme State Audit in 1990. Reflecting later on his appointment, Garga said that he was pleased by it because he thought Biya had recognized his determination to fight corruption and would allow him to do so freely.

In the government, Garga worked to fight corruption. As head of the Supreme State Audit, he reported that various senior officials owed a total of 357 million CFA francs in missing funds, identifying 42 of them who were alleged to have stolen one million CFA francs or more.

Garga argued that the senior officials should be put on trial to demonstrate that corruption would not be tolerated, but no action was taken against them.

Garga’s ministerial portfolio was modified on April 9,1992, when he was appointed as Minister of the Civil Service and Administrative Reform; thus, losing authority over the Supreme State Audit.

According to Garga, Biya did not explain why he had altered his powers but Garga believed it was done because Biya and those around him disapproved of his hardline stance against corruption.

Frustrated by the situation and feeling that Biya lacked confidence in him, Garga resigned from the government on 27 August 1992. He denied that he was persuaded to resign by opposition leader John Fru Ndi, although he campaigned in support of Fru Ndi’s candidacy in the October 1992 presidential election.

Biya won the 1992 election according to official results. However, Garga claimed that the election was rigged and that Fru Ndi was the actual winner.

When Biya launched an anti-corruption campaign in early 2006, Garga expressed cautious approval, saying that Biya was finally doing what he had recommended in the early 1990s and that it was “better late than never”, but he also said that the anti-corruption campaign needed to extend much further.

According to Garga, many ministers and heads of state corporations were corrupt. On 15 March 2007, President Biya appointed Garga to a three-year term on the Coordination Committee of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

At the swearing-in ceremony on 30 May 2007, Garga collapsed, but he received quick medical attention and recovered within minutes. In the press, his collapse was blamed on the very crowded atmosphere in the hall, as well as the fact that he had been standing for about an hour.

Garga was one of three ADD candidates elected to the 35-member Municipal Council of the Maroua 1 council in the July 2007 municipal election. Although his party won only a few municipal seats and no parliamentary seats, Garga observed that the ADD had never before won any municipal seats and argued that the ADD had made progress because it existed “in an environment of thieves” but still managed to “save some of its possessions.”